Middle school students' views on mathematical situations designed with Scratch

Abstract

This research investigates the impact of mathematical problems created with Scratch on the problem-solving skills of 8th-grade middle school students. The research was based on the descriptive design of mixed research approaches. In this direction, the research model was single-group pretest-posttest design, which is a weak experimental design from experimental designs. Qualitative data were collected using the interview technique to complete the experimental design for the research. The participants were eight students studying in the 8th grade at Vocational Religious School at 2022-2023 academic year in central Anatolia, Turkey. Coding activities created with the Scratch program, developed by the researcher and containing mathematical situations, were carried out with the students. At the end of the activities, the data obtained from semi-structured interviews with 6 volunteer students were analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique. The mathematical algorithms designed with Scratch developed positive attitudes in students. The majority of the students did not experience any difficulties. Recommendations were made regarding the necessity of a strategic focus on the integration of computational thinking into the current curriculum in primary and middle school education and the evaluation of its effects on achievement.

Keywords

• Computational Thinking
• Middle School Students
• Problem-Solving Skills
• Scratch

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